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One of the more pleasing side effects of having to mow a small jungle is the plethora of insects and bugs to photography, not to mention the leeches, ticks and mozzies..

Critique, good bad or fugly more than welcome.

Note, all alive specimens, no insects harmed in the photography side of things. The same cannot be said for the mowing session, I suspect I removed some of teh biodiversity of the jungle

I nearly fell over when I saw this thing on the LCD screen!



a little less scary...




like, wtf are these..I was expecting a scene from aliens to unfold thru the viewfinder!

I like the clarity you have acheived in #1 - hand held I take it?
#3 looks like eggs to me so you are not far from your aliens. I like the angle, colour, and the water droplets. Not sure if mum is in #2.
#4 is a crane fly

The first is an outstanding shot! well done

#1 is uber
#2 I reckon would have been more uber if it didn't have that weird bright spot/indentation on it
#3 you should go back and photography the aliens hatching and bursting out

# 1 is a cracker! loved it. So you used a 55mm at f27 @ 1/180 sec wow, i would have had a lot of hand shake in taking that one. Well done, wish I had your steady hand! great work love it, amazing you have so many creative things around your place!

colin_12 wrote:I like the clarity you have acheived in #1 - hand held I take it?
#3 looks like eggs to me so you are not far from your aliens. I like the angle, colour, and the water droplets. Not sure if mum is in #2.
#4 is a crane fly

yep, #1 was handheld, while on tippy toes, I only got one shot of this. The lady bird beetle was far removed from those eggs, I think teh eggs where from some wasp/fly thingy...which was in a writhing mess on the next leaf.

Those crane flys look like super sized mozzies, spend half to the time swatting them, now I will not bother..

mattyshea wrote:The first is an outstanding shot! well done

Remorhaz wrote:#1 is uber

sometimes stuff just lines up nicely

Remorhaz wrote:#2 I reckon would have been more uber if it didn't have that weird bright spot/indentation on it

flash relection...probably could clone it out, but can't be arsed.

Remorhaz wrote:#3 you should go back and photography the aliens hatching and bursting out

lol, nah I sorted those little f'ers out with the brushcutter.

bigsarg7 wrote:# 1 is a cracker! loved it. So you used a 55mm at f27 @ 1/180 sec wow, i would have had a lot of hand shake in taking that one. Well done, wish I had your steady hand! great work love it, amazing you have so many creative things around your place!

1/180 sec is usually quick enough to remove most hand shake, realistically you can get to 1/125 and still be shaking a bit and it shuts that out.

lots creative things at my mums place! some I would rather not see, like the hundreds of trapdoor spiders and mutliple snakes whilst mowing - its like a jungle up there, 2 days of brushcutting and mowing and you still can't see the house from the front of teh block or teh rear of the block (and its only a 1/4acre block)

Holy smokes Batman! These are super!

#1 Photograph an alien and you can make a movie poster out of it...
#2 Is this a crop?
#3 Love that 3D look!

Do you find that the 55 is easier to handhold than a 105?

Gerry
These are outstanding macro shots...with #1 and #3 competition winners! Your photography goes from strength to strength and these deserve a wider audience. Bloody well done!

Loving number 1

Matt. K wrote:Gerry
These are outstanding macro shots...with #1 and #3 competition winners! Your photography goes from strength to strength and these deserve a wider audience. Bloody well done!

Time to print and hang in some of those local cafe's!

surenj wrote:#2 Is this a crop?
#3 Love that 3D look!
Do you find that the 55 is easier to handhold than a 105?

#2 is a crop, only slightly to reposition the bug

#3 yeah it does have a very nice dynamic look - the extra big of vignetting on th etop left and bottom right helps I think too.

Regarding the handholding, I always make sure I have a fast enought shutter - I have been stung many many times with too low shutter and its probably the most sommon mistake I still make, however with the D7000 and the good iso capability I feel its easier!

I have not used the 105mm micro much lately, but from memory it was a bit harder based purely on gettign the exposure with a higher shutter, however that was before I started using my flash more and pre D7000 In some ways using the 55 can be harder cause you have to get pretty darn close, all the 1:1 shots are only inches off the lens hood.

Big V wrote:These are outstanding macro shots.

Big V wrote:Loving number 1

aim54x wrote:Time to print and hang in some of those local cafe's!

Gerry, these are all great macro shots.

I love the clarity of #1. Is it a fly? and how did you take this photo? Is it cropped much? did you use extender rings? was the object moving / alive? So these were all taken with a small aperture (large number)? and flash? What settings did you use for the flash?

I like the ladybug, but agree that the hot spot distracts a little.

Wel done.

rflower wrote:Gerry, these are all great macro shots.

I love the clarity of #1. Is it a fly? and how did you take this photo? Is it cropped much? did you use extender rings? was the object moving / alive? So these were all taken with a small aperture (large number)? and flash? What settings did you use for the flash?

I like the ladybug, but agree that the hot spot distracts a little.

Wel done.

#1 is a dragonfly, this guy was perched up on the clothesline in quite bright sunlight (you would never guess though!) The image is slightly cropped since the eye of the subject was close to the centre of the image, crop was from the top and right hand side.

No extender rings - this was taken with teh 55mm f2.8 macro lens

All these where definitely alive, with teh dragon fly, I got one shot only, he took off the instant the shutter/flash went. On a side note - using dead or stunned bugs just loses the challenge imo - much more rewarding to creep around the garden! strike rate can be very low.

The dragonfly was taken in manual mode using manual focus at f27 @ 1/180sec with SB600 on camera and set to TTL. I also used the mini diffuser.

hth.

I hopefully will rework that ladybug to remove the bright spot.

Matt. K wrote:Gerry
These are outstanding macro shots...with #1 and #3 competition winners! Your photography goes from strength to strength and these deserve a wider audience. Bloody well done!

I can't put it better. But #1 - far out.

#1 is such a great photo Gerry. The detail is incredible and love the deep black background which accentuates the bug. The exposure, focusing, composition and colours are all perfect. By the time I get near a bug it just fly's away haha. Do you think the 55mm is a better lens then the 105mm?

dervish16 wrote:By the time I get near a bug it just fly's away haha. Do you think the 55mm is a better lens then the 105mm?

yeah bugs are hit and miss, I have had plenty of times when I sat there and took 5 pictures to only delete all 5 then do the same for the next 15 minutes

With regard to the 55mm vs the 105mm, both have their advantages, the new 105mm (i have a old 105mm f4) would be pretty sweet, the main reason I use the 55mm is cause I got it cheap secondhand and am too poor to buy a new macro lens, given the choice I would go the newer 105mm or the tamron 90mm. With the 55mm ya gotta get real close to the subject when at 1:1, literally touching the lens hood! this can be particularly challenging with bugs! But hey, whats life without a challenge eh

biggerry wrote:

dervish16 wrote:By the time I get near a bug it just fly's away haha. Do you think the 55mm is a better lens then the 105mm?

yeah bugs are hit and miss, I have had plenty of times when I sat there and took 5 pictures to only delete all 5 then do the same for the next 15 minutes

With regard to the 55mm vs the 105mm, both have their advantages, the new 105mm (i have a old 105mm f4) would be pretty sweet, the main reason I use the 55mm is cause I got it cheap secondhand and am too poor to buy a new macro lens, given the choice I would go the newer 105mm or the tamron 90mm. With the 55mm ya gotta get real close to the subject when at 1:1, literally touching the lens hood! this can be particularly challenging with bugs! But hey, whats life without a challenge eh

Gerry, you forgot the deeper DOF that the 55mm has over the 105mm, but the working distance is a pain!

aim54x wrote:Gerry, you forgot the deeper DOF that the 55mm has over the 105mm, but the working distance is a pain!

ahh correct you are! nice one cam.

biggerry wrote:yeah bugs are hit and miss, I have had plenty of times when I sat there and took 5 pictures to only delete all 5 then do the same for the next 15 minutes

Yeah I guess I just need to go out there and try. I've taken some of bees but my 18-200mm isn't the best at macro and my extention tube is usuless if the subject movies haha as by the time you adjust the focus perfectly and set the apperature and shutter speed it's gone haha

With regard to the 55mm vs the 105mm, both have their advantages, the new 105mm (i have a old 105mm f4) would be pretty sweet, the main reason I use the 55mm is cause I got it cheap secondhand and am too poor to buy a new macro lens, given the choice I would go the newer 105mm or the tamron 90mm. With the 55mm ya gotta get real close to the subject when at 1:1, literally touching the lens hood! this can be particularly challenging with bugs! But hey, whats life without a challenge eh

Oh ok, do you know much about the Tokina's AT-X 100mm f/2.8 PRO D lens? I've heard it's pretty good too. That would be challenging with the 55mm but it's worth it if you can get an image like #1.

dervish16 wrote:Oh ok, do you know much about the Tokina's AT-X 100mm f/2.8 PRO D lens? I've heard it's pretty good too. That would be challenging with the 55mm but it's worth it if you can get an image like #1.

Build quality is better than the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8, and from what I can see the image quality is as good but slightly different....but I would still go the tried and trusted Tamron unless the price is substantially better.

http://www.nnplus.de/macro/Tokina/TokinaE.html

aim54x wrote:Build quality is better than the Tamron SP 90mm f/2.8, and from what I can see the image quality is as good but slightly different....but I would still go the tried and trusted Tamron unless the price is substantially better.

http://www.nnplus.de/macro/Tokina/TokinaE.html

Yeah Tokina has the best build quality for the price. Would consider the 105mm or tokina but got other lenses I want first, was just curious. Going to get the 50mm 1.4 soon and once I save up hopefully a induro cf tripod haha.

Thanks for the help